Force Dyad

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A/N-thank you to everyone who kindly read and reviewed this story!

Chapter Two-The Years Pass

Ben saw the baby girl he'd called Rey intermittently over the next few months. She usually appeared during his lowest moments, always at night, when he was alone and needed extra solace. She was his light in the darkness. There was something about her that radiated peace and serenity. She was growing fast, her movements and facial expressions becoming more animated. Ben recalled the first time she had smiled at him. It was like she was handing him a precious gift. After a hard day's training with his uncle, he'd returned to his hut, eagerly awaiting a call from his parents. It was the first time they had been in contact since he'd settled on the planet where Skywalker intended to revive the Jedi order. The call had been pre-arranged in advance and Ben had been impatiently waiting to get his first glimpse of his parents since he'd left home. Only the call never came. As the day faded into night, Ben's hopes faded with it.

They had forgotten about him.

Again!

He could feel the muscles of his chin tremble like a small child as his loneliness and despair washed over him. His eyes began to drip with tears, the rawness of his disappointment a sad side effect of the constant pain of abandonment he lived with on a daily basis. It took something out of him he didn't know he had left to give. It was like a theft of the spirit, an injury no other person could see. Ben knew there was no point going to his uncle-Skywalker was too preoccupied with the new students that he'd recently recruited. The most he would do was try and soothe Ben's troubled soul with meaningless platitudes or another pointless lecture about controlling his emotions.

Ben had been at his lowest ebb when Rey miraculously materialised in front of him. Like always, her arrival was heralded by a halo of light. Her form would slowly manifest, becoming more solid and real with each passing second. Rey was lying on her tummy on a kind of rush mat, resting on her forearms to balance herself. She was getting stronger and had more control over her movements. As soon as she spotted Ben with her incredible hazel eyes, a sweet smile took over her face. A rush of unexpected warmth rushed through Ben as he fell onto his knees in front of her. Rey let out a soft coo, as only a baby can laugh, a sweet sound unblemished by the hurts of life. Her little face glowed from a light within. The strength in her arms gave out and she rolled onto her back, her miniature fingers grasping Ben's, and holding tight when he reached out to her. She knew! Somehow it felt like she knew he needed comfort in the dead silence of night, she knew he needed joy in the midst of his pain. Ben picked Rey up and held her, he would never let this precious bundle go no matter what came in the future, he vowed he would always protect her. Even to the point of death.


Before Ben realised, a whole year had passed-his days were spent on intensive lightsaber training, meditation, and learning about the Force through Skywalker's lectures. His uncle had even allowed his young apprentice to accompany him on his travels on occasion. Ben shared Skywalker's interest in discovering ancient Jedi artifacts. It was the only thing they had in common. Ben enjoyed the break from the normal routine, also secretly relieved to get away from the other students for a while. Ben excelled at his training to such an extent that his skills eclipsed the combined power of the other apprentices. He knew that the others resented him because of it. He was also felt resentful himself when his uncle failed to praise him for his efforts, concentrating on the negative rather than the positive as if afraid to feed his nephew's ego in any way or show favouritism. It was different when it was just the two of them, Skywalker was more willing to be open with his praise when there wasn't an audience.

The only thing that ruined these trips away was the voice inside his head, which was becoming more and more dominant the longer he tried to ignore it. Ben hadn't told either his parents or his uncle about the voice. During his younger years it used to terrify him, yet also comforted and guided him during his loneliest moments when his parents were too busy to deal with him. It provided warnings of danger and told him secrets, but also told him that he could not survive without the voice because he was weak as it used his insecurities and fears against him.

Things changed when Rey came into his life, her presence enabled him to ignore the whisperings going on inside his head, she solidified his resolve to focus on what was good in his life and not the bad. He no longer needed the voice for comfort when he had her. She was his light and he clung to that with all his strength. She was growing fast and so was he. The last time Rey had appeared to him, she had already taken her first steps. She moved like her knees were just hinges, wobbling to and fro, before falling on her padded bottom. Then she clapped like it was all part of the plan and rolled to her stomach to get up again. Ben spent one delightful evening holding onto her hands, guiding her steps as she moved around his room on wobbly legs. Rey had rewarded him with one of her cherubic smiles. She was dressed in a white pinafore dress and those soft first shoes kids wear, the ones they can still feel the ground through. Then out of nowhere, in the middle of their fun, Rey had been swept away by unseen hands (presumably one of her parents) and disappeared. It had been a sad end to her visit.


A few weeks later Ben was in his hut taking a trip down memory lane as he documented his latest travels with his uncle. Unlike his peers who favoured the newest technology, Ben used an old-fashioned calligraphy set to keep a written record of his Jedi insights. Rey was propped up on his lap as he wrote. She was holding one of his old quill pens, which was free of ink, and studying it with interest, her eyes nearly crossing as she took in its length. After a while she got bored looking at it and stuffed the end in her mouth.

"No, you don't." Ben chided her gently, laughing. "You can't eat it."

Rey babbled a load of nonsense at him, pouting when he tried to ease the quill out of her hand. When he finally managed to disentangle it from her tight grip, her eyes filled with easy tears. Ben hated it when she cried, especially if he was the cause. He cast around for something else to pique her interest and his eyes landed on the old Rebel Alliance starfighter pilot doll his mother had made for him when he was a young toddler, not much older than Rey. The doll reminded him of a happier time-a time when his parents were around more often and he felt safe and loved.

Ben had brought the old doll with him out of a sense of nostalgia. He decided then and there to gift it to Rey. He picked it up and handed it to her. She took it from him eagerly, her tears drying up immediately as she studied her new acquisition with her inquisitive gaze.

"There you go, Rey. Remember Ben gave that to you." He said to her jokingly.

"B…Be…Be…Ben." Rey twittered as she turned the doll upside down and shook it.

Ben couldn't believe she had just said his name. A rare smile took over his face as he watched her play with the old doll for a while before he resumed writing.


More months passed. Ben had been under Skywalker's stewardship for almost two years. His twelfth birthday had passed with just a brief acknowledgement from his uncle and a short message from his parents. When he spoke to his mother, he found her distracted and overtired. When he had asked if he could pay a brief visit home, she had refused him. "Now's not a good time, Ben. Maybe later."

His entreaties to his father passed the same way. "Another time, kid." Han said. "I promise."

Ben retreated to his hut after yet another frustrating confrontation with one of the other apprentices. Voe always seemed to take it as a personal affront whenever he bested her during their lightsaber training or when he managed to lift a large rock with ease and she struggled to do the same. Another one of the apprentices, Tai, acted as peacemaker, separating them when Voe became increasingly confrontational. As for Skywalker, he hadn't reprimanded Voe on her bad attitude, deciding to lecture Ben instead about showing some humility.

Like she always did when he was feeling low, Rey's form began to emerge from the halo of light. Ben relaxed, the tension from his rough day quickly easing at the sight of her. Around Rey's shoulders was a baby quilt, worn like a cape. Her eyes shined like pebbles washed by the ocean waves and a smile that ignited his inner joy spread across her face as she ran toward him, her arms outstretched as she waited for him to lift her up.

Lately Ben had been teaching her to read. He placed her beside him on his bed and reached for his datapad. A datapad was a small, usually low-cost, electronic device used for storing information. Taking the place of the more primitive book, a datapad could store textual, graphic, and holographic data. They were commonly used as notebooks, day planners, calculators, and sketchpads. Ben had downloaded some of his favourite childhood stories to share with Rey. He had been amazed when she began to quickly pick up some of the words that he read aloud to her. He decided then and there to make it his mission to teach her to read. He had no idea what her parents were doing as far as her education was concerned, but he figured giving her head start could only improve her future prospects.

Even though she was over two years of age, Rey was skinny for her age but mostly healthy. Ben had taken to keeping a store of her favourite food to snack on during her visits. Her hair was a light chestnut brown, usually weaved into three intricate buns at the back of her head. She had pale skin with a smattering of freckles over her nose. Lately, he had taken to wondering what her home life was like. He worried that she wasn't getting enough to eat, she was a lot more subdued then she used to be. She loved animals, like most girls do. Ben delighted in showing her holographic images of different species of his home world, Chandrila. When he gently tried to coax information from Rey about hers, she would clam up and pretend she didn't know. It was this secretive aspect that made him think that her home life was becoming increasingly unstable and it concerned him. He wished he could save her, but he was only a young teen and had no idea where she was from or who her parents were.

On a different night when she appeared, Ben decided to take her with him for a walk. It was very late, most, if not all the other students would have retired for the night. Ben carried Rey as he strolled around the temple's grounds. She was as light as a feather and he worried she had lost more weight. She had devoured all the snacks within minutes as if she hadn't eaten for a week. The starry night was like a brilliant painting overhead, everything bigger and brighter, blurred in the most fantastic way. Just gazing at the midnight blue canvass above stole every thought from his mind, the usual carousel of worries simply forgotten. Ben pointed out the constellations to Rey and she repeated them back to him, stumbling over some of the more difficult words. She was a quick-learner and soon had most of them memorised.

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Voe's sneering voice coming from behind him, startled Ben. He had been so immersed in showing Rey the constellations that he hadn't been aware of anyone creeping up behind him. His arms immediately felt empty as Rey vanished into the ether. He scowled-of all the people to discover him and disturb his peace- why did it have to be Voe?

"You are so weird, Ben Solo." Voe continued scathingly. "You wait until I tell the others about this." She taunted him.

"Don't you dare!" Ben yelled as his overwhelming anger made him lose control. He wanted to wipe the arrogant smile off her face. Without realising what he was doing, he used the Force to brutally sweep her off her feet.

Voe landed heavily a few feet away, her backside smarting. "You wait until I tell Master Skywalker about this." She cried indignantly. "He'll revoke your privileges again. You deserve everything that's coming to you, Ben Solo." She warned him before running off into the night.

A/N-thanks for reading!